Just For Love

After some silence following the second “death” of Bauhaus, Beggars Banquet released a greatest hits compilation of Murphy’s work in 2000 (Wild Birds 1985-1995) which prompted a tour throughout the first half of the year. For this jaunt, Bauhaus bandmate Kevin Haskins filled the drum stool, Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction) was recruited for the bass guitar, Porno For Pyro’s Peter DiStefano on guitar and Doug DeAngelis on keyboards. Incidentally, a live recording taped during this tour has recently been released via Cleopatra Records.

Now truly on his own, Murphy needed a collaborator for a new album. By luck, the name Mercan Dede was suggested to him by his wife (for she had been considering using his music for her dance company in Turkey). Dede was also Turkish, but had since relocated to Montreal, Canada. After an initial meeting between the two, Murphy knew Dede would be the best person to co-write and produce the next album with.

By pure coincidence, one of the new album’s songs came about through a conversation with Dede in which the latter was trying to describe the Montreal comedy festival, calling it a “just for laughs” kind of affair. Murphy misheard it as “just for love” and was immediately drawn to this idea of doing something just for the sake of love, inspiring not just a new song, but also an entire tour. The Just For Love Tour in late-2000 would prove to be a whole new beast for Murphy.

The Just For Love Tour revolved around the notion of stripping away the spectacle of the performance, but not being a typical stripped down performance of minimal drums and acoustic instruments. Hugh Marsh played a pivotal role on electric violin, while Murphy retained Peter DiStefano on guitar and added in Fergus Marsh on stickman bass. The tour was a huge success and provided much of the headspace Murphy and Dede would work under in crafting the new solo album.